Dr Innocent Batsani-Ncube, Lecturer in African Politics at Queen Mary University of London, has written for The Continent on SADC’s response to Zimbabwe’s elections:
"After the 2023 Zimbabwe elections, many commentators celebrated the Southern African Development Community’s observer mission, which concluded that “aspects of the elections fell short of the requirements of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the Electoral Act, and SADC principles and guidelines governing democratic elections”."
"To many this signalled a turning point in SADC’s electoral peer review, which has often been seen to confer credibility on problematic polls. This apparent progress was quickly undermined, however, because rather than call out Zanu-PF, key SADC leaders sent out congratulatory messages within a day of the results announcement, including from Namibia, Tanzania, Botswana and South Africa."
The Continent